Thunder’s Carmelo Anthony raising money for Puerto Rico relief

Carmelo Anthony, who is half Puerto Rican, is trying to raise money to help those suffering from the devastation left by Hurricane Maria.

Puerto Rico, which is suffering a financial crisis, was hit hard by the storm. It has been left almost entirely without electricity in the midst of an 11-year economic recession.

Anthony started a YouCaring fundraising campaign on Friday in an effort to raise $1 million for the people of Puerto Rico. By Monday he’d raised just over $200,000.

This comes on the heels of another YouCaring campaign set up by Houston Texans defensive end JJ Watt for victims of Hurricane Harvey, which slammed the Texas Gulf Coast last month.

Watt’s fundraiser was met with such an outpouring of support that he was continually forced to raise his goal. He’d initially set it at $200,000 but surpassed that within two hours. It eventually ended with over $37 million.

Puerto Rico’s governor has appealed for a robust aid package to help the debt stricken territory, which remains without power days after the storm. The Guajataca Dam in the island’s northwest is releasing water after suffering a “critical infrastructure failure.” Thousands of people would be in danger if the dam collapsed, Governor Ricardo Rosselló says.

The fact that Puerto Rico is an island also makes relief efforts more challenging. People were able to get truckloads of goods like water bottles and diapers to Houston-area residents fairly quickly once flooding had receded.

Major commercial airlines have been able to send in resources on relief flights, but are still struggling to resume service.

Anthony, a former Knicks star who was recently traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, wrote a letter in the Player’s Tribune about the situation in Puerto Rico.

“You read the headlines, and they’re all saying Puerto Rico might be powerless for 4-6 months,” Anthony wrote. “But do you really understand the magnitude of that? Do you really?”

He noted that thousands of little kids are “sitting in the dark” and “might not have a roof over their heads anymore. Their houses might be totally destroyed. Their refrigerators aren’t running. They might not have much food or clean water to last them the week.”

“I’ve been texting my people down there for the past 24 hours, and I get nothing back. It’s the worst feeling in the world. Imagine texting somebody you love and getting no response for more than a day. It’s been days of nothing.”